Version 0.3.0
=Second Life version 0.3, released January 20, 2003= OBJECT TAXES Previous to this release, the taxation scheme for objects was that each shape received a fixed charge of L$3/week. With this release, the per shape charge will be variable, based on the size of the shape and its height above ground. Small objects or those near ground level will generally enjoy reduced taxes, while large objects or those high in the air will be taxed more. For example, under the old scheme, a default shape created near the ground would be assessed L$3/week, whereas under the new plan, it would be assessed L$1/week. Similarly, a maximally scaled (10 meters) box raised to 20 meters above ground would be assessed L$3/week under the old scheme, but charged over L$30/week under the new plan. The exact tuning of these numbers will likely change during the beta period. Most users will see a drop in their object taxes as a result of this change. Those with enormous towers or very large/high objects may see an increase. You will now also be able to see the exact weekly tax an object will cost, by selecting/editing and looking in the general properties panel. Selecting multiple objects will display the total tax for all those objects. So it should be easy to check what your taxes are going to be on a given project. The charges for lights will remain the same as before. LAND TAXES Land taxes now have a discount awarded for land located close to other land owners. The discount is based on the percentage of resident-owned land near the center of the chosen parcel, and can reach as high as 50% (this number will be subject to tuning during the beta). In other words, if you buy a plot which is completely surrounded by neighbors, it could be as much as 50% cheaper to buy and maintain than a plot sitting alone in the countryside. Additionally, the rate applies to your own plot as well, making it somewhat cheaper to buy one large plot versus several small ones scattered around. The discount rate (for all property owners) will change dynamically as new residents move in, so you drop the taxes of your neighbors by moving in next to them, and vice-versa. This should make choosing neighbors fun--you make their taxes lower by living near them! Choose wisely! STARTUP AND SHUTDOWN ISSUES * You can't run two copies of Second Life at the same time. This used to cause crashes. * If your graphics card does not support Second Life, we put up a dialog explaining this, rather than crashing. * Second Life will no longer crash on startup if your computer's clock is slow by more than a few days. * Crash reporter improvements: You now have the ability to enter a note saying what you were doing at the time of the crash. Providing us with a description of what you were doing can vastly increase the probability that we will find and fix that crash. * We now put our temporary files and logs in the correct locations (for example, C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data). LAND ISSUES * Hovering the mouse over other avatars shows their names. You might consider changing your preference for "Show Avatar Names" to "Show Temporarily", which will fade the names out after 10 seconds. * Land claim dates are now shown correctly. * Selecting land is improved. You no longer have to drag a rectangle around the edges of the land. You can now click in the center of any piece of land and drag to select a larger parcel. * If you are in an area where you cannot build new objects, the word "No Build" appears at the bottom of the screen. AVATARS AND ATTACHMENTS * You will need to readjust the size of your avatar's hair using the "hair volume" slider. A change in the way hair size is calculated causes many hair styles to shrink. However, this change also makes it much easier to create bald, beautiful people! * There are a few new facial slider options (eyelid puffyness, lip cleft depth, eyebrow height, jaw angle, and more makeup color choices in the color sliders). * There are many more attachment points, organized hierarchically. * Avatars are better looking (lit more realistically). * A "Snapshot" animation plays when you take a snapshot. Everyone can see this animation. * Attachment size and rotation modifications maintained across simulator boundaries. * The avatar looks in the proper direction now (much less head jiggling). * Scripted objects should no longer disappear after being attached. * Trying to joint two attachments will not crash the simulator. * Revised data set used for randomizing avatar appearance. * Fixed bug that could cause clothing and body part settings to be lost after a long file transfer delay. * New outfits now include underwear (if being worn) by default when they are created. USER INTERFACE AND GRAPHICS * The shadows cast by objects should now be more correct, but slower. To improve performance and reduce memory consumption, you can now disable shadows via the Preferences/Display panel. * Some other viewer performance improvements have been made, which should result in better frame rates. * You can now scroll the account history dialog. There's interesting stuff at the bottom! * Objects you own appear in the map in blue. * Hitting Tab to look at last chatter now centers on their head, not their pelvis * New and improved selection "glow". Also, frame rate is improved when you have complicated objects selected. * Decoding of a corrupt sound file no longer continually attempts to decode the bad file. * You can now use sound queuing to queue up another copy of the currently playing sound (previously it had to be different sound). * Sound files are now released immediately after upload (allowing you to move or delete the original files). * Online help has been updated. * People directory no longer crashes if the window is closed before results display. * New "Bad keystroke" sound. * Unlinked objects with physics turned on no longer fall through heightfield. * Sitting on complex objects no longer lags the physics engine. * Jointed objects should move much smoother now. * Using "move" to manipulate objects now works correctly when your avatar is sitting. * Fixed bug that would make garbage appear in chat editor when in "overwrite" mode. * The code for creating and rezzing objects will inform you more quickly if it fails to collect all the information necessary to perform the transaction. * Instant message sessions are more session oriented. For instance, it is now easily possible to have more than one session with the same user. * Crashes when using the land tool near the edge of a simulator have been fixed. * We expanded the kinds of BMP files that can be uploaded. * Deleting an object someone is sitting on no longer gives you an extra $10. * You can't use the edit tool to change other avatars' face and hair textures or name. SCRIPTING * llRezObject() puts objects into the world with permissions for everyone move and everyone modify. This prevents malicious or buggy scripts from polluting the environment and blocking people's movement. * Script call: llRotLookAt() has been made more stable, and the damping parameter has changed slightly. Damping can be a floating point number between 0.0 and 1.0. A damping of 0.0 causes no damping; the object may overshoot its target rotation and oscillate as if it were on a spring. A damping of 1.0 causes the scripted object to exhibit no oscillation or overshoot as it rotates toward the target rotation. * Tooltip for llSetStatus() script call now includes STATUS_BLOCK_GRAB flag. Set this status to prevent other users from grabbing and physically moving the object. ECONOMY * (This change went out a few days ago) You should now always be given your weekly stipend and charged your weekly maintenance fees at the same time. * When texture uploads fail, you are no longer charged. KNOWN BUGS If you have attachments that have scripts and you teleport, the scripts will be reset and go back to their initial state. Category:Release Notes